Message Received
by mimma
Summary: You're the one who mailed me.
1. Chapter 1

When Midorima has soaked and recharged and is facing the long empty silence of a night after a loss, he goes through his jersey pockets and finds a scrap of paper with a mail address.

He thinks he recognizes the (execrable) handwriting, but he can't sleep for yearning anyway.

_Who is this_, he sends.

_Are you an idiot_, Kagami Taiga sends back. _Good game_ he adds, as though in afterthought. Midorima cannot imagine why Kagami Taiga has slipped him his mail address if all he wanted to do was insult Midorima, and says so.

_Also you are the idiot, not me_, he finishes.

_I can't sleep_, Kagami sends back, ignoring all of Midorima's perfectly salient points. _You too, huh?_

_I would sleep if you didn't keep bothering me_, says Midorima huffily. It's true. He would be able to fall asleep if he didn't keep straining for the sound of the alert chime, for checking to make sure he hasn't missed a reply.

_You're the one who mailed me_, Kagami sends back. There's a long list of reasons this is true, but also wrong. _Good night, then._

Midorima dithers a very little, but replies, _Good night_.

.0.

"You thanked Midorima-kun for his pencil?" said Kuroko, sipping his milk.

"Well, yeah," said Kagami, shrugging. "I mean, I hate to admit it, but I basically had to. I wouldn't have been playing without it."

"That's true," said Kuroko, mildly. "How did he take it?"

"He's sent four mail messages already and I'm still scrolling," said Kagami, phone in one hand, sandwich in the other. "Who the hell does he think he is, anyway? Can't he just take a thanks and shut up?"

"He's very diligent," said Kuroko. "Midorima-kun will probably be Shuutoku's top student, or very near that. He works very hard and is quite intelligent."

"Oh," said Kagami. He thought for a moment. "So he'd be a good person to study with."

Kuroko experienced an immediate and vivid flashback to the horror of keeping Murasakibara-kun and Aomine-kun out of summer classes so that they could go to training camps, and the unwitting discovery that Kuroko's own math grades were hardly up to snuff, and _the horror, the horror_.

"You could say that," said Kuroko.

"Heh," said Kagami, typing. "See how he likes that."

Kuroko blinked at him. "You've... invited Midorima-kun to study with you?" he said.

"Well, tutor," said Kagami. "We're in different schools after all. He wants to nag me about how I pass my exams, he can damn well put his money where his mouth is."

Kuroko opened his mouth, but the class bell rang before he could think of anything to say; in contrast, Midorima's reply was flashed at him over Kagami's shoulder.

_As you wish. I'll make you regret your carelessness._

.0.

"You live by yourself?" said Midorima, surprised.

"Since junior high," said Kagami, and noted that Midorima somehow looked even better dressed up than he did when sweaty and bare-armed and muscles, looking all prim and proper with his bookbag and his sweater vest and _fuck_ Kagami really needed to get himself under control, Midorima seemed likely to spook like a deer at the slightest provocation.

"It's not- filthy," said Midorima, fascinated. He began to rapidly revise his inital mental comparision of Kagami to Aomine. "How do you feed yourself?"

"I cook," said Kagami, and put out the jug of iced tea. He had the air conditioner going, but it was still hot as hell outside. He'd never get used to the _humdity_. Midorima did not even appear to sweat.

While Midorima stared silently at him (doubting all that he believed in this world) Kagami sat across from him at the coffee table. Kagami was dressed much better than Midorima would have expected. He'd never thought that Kagami Taiga could be- would be-

.0.

So stupid. Midorima's head fell forward onto his hands, in order to not let Kagami Taiga see a strong man cry.

"There's a court just outside," Kagami offered, having emerged from differential equations completely unscathed by knowledge. "Let's take a break. One on one."

"You are not going to improve your grades by taking _breaks_," said Midorima.

"Can you even play basketball when it doesn't involve your precious threes?" said Kagami.

Midorima's eyes narrowed. "Of course I can," he said, refusing to rise to the bait.

"Oh, yeah?" said Kagami, and smirked at the other boy, and maybe they did need a break, or at least Midorima needed a break from having to pound facts into Kagami's thick head, and something about being so close to Kagami- having to show him stroke order so he could mimic it, sitting right up next to him so that Kagami molded to his side and spoke English into his ear with his breath- screw it, Midorima needed the break.

.0.

"Shit, lost track of time," said Kagami, looking at his phone. Midorima shook his, and stared perplexed at the dark sky. Surely they hadn't been going at it so long? It seemed they'd barely started, though that could just have been the bullheaded simplicity of Kagami's basketball, the way it took his breath away. "It's my fault it got this late. Wanna stay for dinner?"

.0.

Midorima stuck his- still slightly wet, after he'd jumped away from Kagami with the towel trying to go at his hair- head into Kagami's room. "Why did you mail me from next door?" he said. Kagami was wider than him, and the shirt- smelled, in a laundry sort of way. Kagami's room smelled less clean, more... Kagami. He used some kind of funny soap, and now Midorima smelled of it too.

Kagami grinned at him, sheepishly. "I'm used to saying good night to you," he said, sitting up on his bed, long legs ranged out before him.

"I'm right here!" said Midorima, affronted. "Is the concept also too hard for you to grasp?"

"That's true," Kagami agreed. "Wish me good night, then."

Midorima glared at him. "You are the one who needs to abide by your own ridiculous habit," he said.

"Oh yeah?" said Kagami. "What's tomorrow's lucky item?"

Midorima shoved his glasses up. "Headphones, of course," he said. He had already secured a pair of Kagami's, sitting safely beside the spare bed. "Something to help you hear. I am going to go to sleep now. Good night."


	2. Chapter 2

For all Midorima's dire predictions about not being able to sleep in a strange bed, he slept wonderfully, tired out by the mental and physical exertion of dealing with Kagami and Kagami's really quite strange habits.

He woke to Kagami's hand on his shoulder, and- was that a ghosting of fingers up his neck, across his cheek? No, he was just confused. He had just tried to lean into air.

"I'm making breakfast," said Kagami. "How d'you want your eggs?"

"I prefer a Japanese breakfast," said Midorima, blinking sleep from his eyes.

"Next time," said Kagami, looking down on him. "The rice isn't ready."

"Scrambled, then," said Midorima, and when he was in the bathroom with the toothbrush he'd bought at the combini last night he thought, suddenly, _next time?_

The eggs were delicious.

.0.

"So I hear someone slunk home yesterday in the same clothes he'd left the house in the previous day," said Takao. "How was the walk of shame, Shin-chan?"

"There was no walk of shame," said Midorima. ""There was no shame. Nothing happened. I just slept over."

Takao grinned. Midorima's phone beeped.

_Take care of those headphones_, read the mail.

"Headphones," said Takao, peering at the mail.

"Yesterday's lucky item," said Midorima.

"You took a dude's cans?" said Takao, shaking his head. "Man, just when I think you can't get any more unbelievable."

Midorima dug into his bag for them, and Takao's eyes bugged out of his head. "Holy shit," he said. "Shin-chan, wow."

"What?" said Midorima. They were just headphones. True, Midorima had used them with his music player- just to try!- and they'd been divinely comfortable with amazing sound quality, but Takao surely couldn't know that just from looking at-

"Shin-chan those things cost more than my laptop," said Takao, reaching out for them like a man hypnotized.

Midorima lifted them out of his reach automatically, while giving the headphones an alarmed look.

"He said he had more," said Midorima, blankly, but he was trying to remember now, Kagami had just lifted the headphones from the table after they'd checked the predictions for the next day, and Midorima had said, _headphones_, and Kagami had said, _here_. Just like that. _Try these. You might like them._

"How rich is Kagami?" asked Takao incredulously.

"He lives by himself," said Midorima.

"Shin-chan do you have a sugar daddy," said Takao, awed. "Do you?"

"No, I don't," he snapped at Takao, but his fingers flew over the keys. "They're just on loan."

_I have to return these to you_, he sent back. He hesitated over asking if they were important to Kagami, of course they were important to Kagami. He'd taken great care of them, and they'd been close to hand in his house, and Kagami had looked at Midorima as though expecting him to be pleased by them, half-proud, half-waiting.

_I'm not free until the weekend_, Kagami replied. _Tests_.

"I'll return them on the weekend," said Midorima once they had hashed this out, now watching Takao reverentially plug them into his phone.

"Oh, god, everything just became clear," said Takao, pausing mid-sway. "It's an excuse to see you again. Kagami's got _game_, man."

"It's not-" snapped Midorima.

"He lent you a slice of audio heaven," said Takao. "How do I make you understand this? It's like if- if- you know, like a guy gives a girl a really nice piece of jewelry, or if someone put up with you being crazy all the time, every time, without the three selfish requests even though you are crazy!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" said Midorima.

Takao cast him a pitying look. "It means I think you should prepare a change of clothes to go to Kagami's house," he said.

"I was already going to do that," said Midorima. Really, wasn't it obvious? "I can't keep wearing his clothes and making him do the laundry." He paused for a moment. "But we're not going to his house this time. We're just meeting up after practice."

Takao's head fell forward onto his hands. Midorima did not appreciate this. Takao sometimes felt the need to mock some of Midorima's mannerisms, or had taken them up to express his feelings at frankly odd moments.

Midorima looked at the last message from Kagami, a casual _see you then_, and wondered if the tuition had really done any good.


	3. Chapter 3

Kagami had on headphones when Midorima met him at the bench outside the station; he pulled them down off his head as Midorima approached.

"You shouldn't have lent these to me," said Midorima as greeting.

"Hi," said Kagami. "What's wrong? You said the lucky item was something to help you hear. You get it wrong?"

"No," snapped Midorima, "It's just- you just-" _It was too much_, Midorima wanted to say, but could not articulate how. Akashi had once handed Midorima the watch right off his wrist rather than endure the frenzied search, but this was different, somehow, in some way that Midorima could not have put his finger on. Something about how he had put them on, and sat on his bed wrapped in sound and song, and thought about Kagami doing the same, curled in his room not needing to care if the sky went dark around him. How Kagami was just holding the pair in his hands without even checking for scratches- not that Midorima _would_ have, but Kagami acted like it hadn't been a big deal to hand Midorima one of his treasures before Midorima had even asked. "You just shouldn't have," he said, and crossed his arms at Kagami.

Kagami clearly thought of several replies to this comment before he settled on rolling his eyes and said, "Did you try them?"

"Yes," said Midorima, which seemed safe enough, until Kagami said, "Yeah? On what?"

"What?" said Midorima.

"What'd you listen to?" said Kagami, tipping up his head to look at Midorima.

"Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov," said Midorima, then waited.

"...Classical?" said Kagami, after a few moments puzzling out the pronunciation.

"Very good," said Midorima, surprised. If Kagami had been a dog, this would have been an ideal time for a treat.

Kagami snorted at him. "Figures," he said. "Don't you listen to anything less you?"

"I don't feel the need to sully my ears with caterwauling," said Midorima. Once, Midorima had heard Miyaji-sempai singing _-jump into your racing car-_ under his breath. He had sworn never to repeat the experience, not because he was scared of Miyaji-sempai, but because of the sheer horror of Takao taking up the song and singing it throughout the entire ride home that day.

Kagami took out his ipod, and said, "Alright, sit down. You're going to listen to some actual current music."

Midorima- hesitated. "Midorima?" said Kagami, looking up at him. He shifted over his leg, even though there was plenty of space for Midorima to sit.

"Only if you insist," said Midorima, and settled next to him. He reached for the headphones, but Kagami was already moving- settling them onto Midorima's head, hands brushing the skin of Midorima's neck.

The noise isolation made the sound of Midorima's heartbeat loud in his ears.

"Try this," said Kagami, and Midorima steeled himself.

.0.

"No cheeseburgers," said Midorima, appalled. "What kind of athlete are you? What kind of nutrition is that? How do you live like this?"

Kagami wilted visibly. "But they're cheap," he said. "And they're good, they're really-" he looked at Midorima's expression of horror and changed tack, "Anyway, I eat them all the time, and I exercise a lot, so it's not like I don't work it off."

"Don't you cook?" said Midorima. Kagami had said so, hadn't he?

"When I'm at home," said Kagami. "But if I'm out-"

"What do you eat at _school_," said Midorima, baffled. He had worse eating habits than Murasakibara, than _Kuroko_. Surely it couldn't be so bad. "If you make your own lunch, it shouldn't be too much trouble to-"

"I just eat bread and sandwiches," said Kagami. Sometime in the chain of songs- Midorima getting out his own phone to impress upon Kagami the only music worth listening to- Kagami had slumped against the back of the bench, and his head lolled back with his long legs stretched before him, so that he looked at Midorima sideways now, and if Midorima wasn't careful when he turned to talk to Kagami, their legs kicked each other and tangled for long clumsy embarrassing moments. "It's too much trouble to make a packed lunch for myself."

Midorima was a loss for words. No, wait, he wasn't. "Even if you want to fill your stomach with food that's little better than garbage, there's no conceivable reason why I would wish to do the same," he said. How could Kagami eat like that, just because he didn't have anyone to check up on him and force him to live better, just because he didn't have anyone? Kagami didn't have parents with him to teach him better eating habits by example, he wasn't going to know any better than his execrable taste. "I have no doubt I am perfectly capable of finding place at once capable of serving proper sustenance and also of feeding your bottomless pit of a stomach."

Kagami stared at him for a full beat before he said, "Okay, fine. You pick where we go. You could have just said that from the start."

"If I don't tell you," said Midorima with dignity, "How will you _learn_?"


	4. Chapter 4

For all Kagami's protestations that the cheeseburgers are cheap, he orders mountainous amounts of food, until the table is crowded dish-to-dish and Midorima's lucky item, an unlit paper lantern. Midorima is not unaware that, as a sixteen-year-old athlete, he eats enormously; even Akashi and Kise can make startling amounts of food vanish and the less said about Murasakibara the better. Kagami, however, devours food like he's never heard of it before, a thing Midorima knows to be categorically untrue.

"We had training today," says Kagami, in response to this diatribe. "The district championships are coming up."

Midorima blinks at him one long slow blink, outraged. "Of course I know," he says. Of course he does. The calendar in the locker room is marked up with all the dates, all the time Midorima has expected to spend in preparation. The coach sighs every time he passes it. Kagami doesn't appear to see Midorima controlling his outburst, though. Their knees knock together, two massive boys squeezed into a small booth, something like intimate. Midorima picks tidbits from Kagami's spread in revenge for making him stay out this late anyway, and lectures him on nutrition. Kagami appears to split all his attention between the food and Midorima, which Midorima can only hope means he's getting through.

(His fingers curl onto his utensils with delicate precision. He sits upright and implacable. He moves with absent grace, and the sound of his voice softens and drones, rich with the rumble of the man he is becoming. Midorima is not getting through at all.)

He's silent for a long period of chewing, and says, "I played Aomine Daiki the other day."

Midorima says, "Yes," and does not say a thousand other things that sprung to mind immediately and without prompting; that Kagami had lost, that Aomine had won, that Momoi had probably been with him, that Aomine has not changed since Junior High and probably would never need to, that Aomine's basketball, all edges and sighs and excellence flashed in front of his eyes like a lightning-strike and left Midorima blinking in the searing aftermath like he had been punched in the gut. There is something in Kagami's basketball like Aomine. There is something in Aomine's basketball that is amazing, that is something that was all that Teikou was for all their team.

Midorima cannot yet imagine that Kagami knows what he has let himself in for.

Kagami drinks deep from his steaming cup, and Midorima watches the snarl of a grin form around its rim. He continues eating, though he has watched Kagami eat for so long he is sure it is affecting his appetite; the remains of it turn to dust in his mouth.

Midorima imagines it goes without saying that Kagami will lose, that Seirin will.

He doesn't want Kagami to lose again until Midorima himself can defeat him.

He doesn't want Kagami to lose.

.0.

Somehow Midorima winds up taking back Kagami's _other_ pair of headphones, settled around his neck after Kagami wrangles it out of him- somewhere between the gyuudon and the fourth bowl of katsudon- that Midorima only has cheap headphones or earbuds at home, the kind that come with the machines and are perfectly serviceable for anyone who isn't a ridiculously picky snob like Kagami. There's no way Midorima will understand what Kagami is saying about music since obviously Midorima doesn't know anything at all about this subject and won't until he actually gains some experience by trying the experiment over again.

Midorima maintains it was the shock of hearing Kagami muster a logical argument that weakens him and let Kagami put his other pair around his neck- his spare pair, apparently, which don't look quite as sleek as the one that Kagami had lent him first, for which Midorima is thankful. He doesn't think he could take having it for much longer, the jokes that Takao will make, the nervousness of having it, the weight it represents in his bag.

He feels stupid. It's foolish. It doesn't match with what he's wearing at all. It looks weird. Kagami insists, though, and if Kagami wants to be so unreasonable, then Midorima really has no option but to acquiesce. They split the bill and wander back to the station full and feeling removed somehow from their everyday lives. It's not unpleasant.

"Have you always been interested in these kind of things?" asks Midorima. It seems unlike Kagami. It seems too complicated for his simply brain.

"Started after I came back," says Kagami. "I got- more- I had a lot of free time, even though I joined the basketball club in Junior high. We weren't any good, and because I was new, sometimes- You can't really find streetball games around here? Not like in the States. So I wound up listening to music a lot and getting interested in stuff like this." He scratches his head. "I didn't play anything last time- but I set up the one I have at home, too. Nothing too fancy, but it's not bad. I used to walk around and just listen to stuff when I wasn't doing anything else."

Midorima does not remember anyone else in Junior High being any good, really, but doesn't say so. He is struck, suddenly, by Kagami young and alone, filling the apartment with sound in lieu of anything else. Walking around the city without talking to anyone. It's making him sad. _Kagami_ is making him sad. This is unreasonable. Kagami is doing fine now. The thought sinks like a stone in his mind, and it's maybe why Midorima is being more lenient that he should be, even though Kagami has some big matches coming up and instead of practising or resting, is spending this time out with him. To get back his headphones. And trade another pair away.

"See you," says Kagami, when they're about to tap through to their different lines. Midorima is murmuring his goodbyes when Kagami is already gone, head and shoulders above everyone else, unmistakable.

He doesn't move to take it off even through the long train ride home, the cable plugged into nothing and the weight of it on his neck. His phone buzzes once he's already returned and put them on his desk, ready and waiting.

_Good night_, Kagami sends.

Midorima replies, _You too_.

.0.

Midorima is watching when Seirin's coach pulls Kagami off the court, while Aomine is playing, when Kagami is playing, while Touou halts Seirin's march to the Interhigh.

There's no way it wouldn't have ended like this.

It's not going to end like this.

.0.

Usually Kagami the one who initiates their conversations, which range from inanities like _How do you make Kise stop mailing you_ (The answer is that Midorima doesn't, even though Kise is far more inane, keeps ridiculous hours and occasionally includes badly-drawn ACSII rabbits, dogs and basketballs in his mails. Midorima can only conclude this to be a failing in his moral fiber) to inanities like _Practice was hard today_. Sometimes entire days can pass without mails, even the _Good night_ Kagami types out just before he goes to sleep, which Midorima usually answers in the morning with a _You have terrible sleeping habits_, taking the opportunity to inform Kagami of his horoscope for the day if it is exceptional. On those days when he doesn't reply, Kagami has usually passed out from tiredness. It never lasts, though. Kagami always mails Midorima again. They're both busy; their practices are both hard. You make time.

Takao sends him the match results, although Midorima doesn't need them.

Tonight, Midorima again cannot sleep for yearning, and is listening to music, to sound and fury with the blood boiling in his veins. He can't disturb his parents, so he has on Kagami's headphones, curled into a corner of his bed looking at the score on the phone.

_Good night_, he sends, without quite knowing why he does it.

(You lost and I was watching, you lost and I was there. You lost and I expected it, you lost and I-

You lost.)

.0.

One day passes. Two days. A week.

Kagami does not reply.


	5. Chapter 5

And after all that, there really isn't much to say. Kise may have the free time- despite his work, and having actually qualified for the Interhigh- to go watch the rest of Seirin's games. Midorima most certainly does not. (Kagami doesn't reply.)

Midorima puts Seirin out of his mind as they prepare to go on Shuutoku's traditional training camp.

They might have free time. Midorima regretfully passes over packing the traveling shogi set, though. There appeared to be no one among the Shuutoku regulars with even an interest, let alone an aptitude, for the game. Nakatani-kantoku isn't always going to be free. (Kagami doesn't reply.)

He hesitates over the headphones. He's sure he can dig out one of the old ones they have in the house. He has his standard-issue earphones, but the barest experience of luxury has made him nice in his tastes; he might as well be listening to traffic or Takao's caterwauling.

Actually, Midorima isn't sure he wouldn't prefer to listen to Takao's caterwauling. He makes the mistake of checking with Takao- because _that_ did so much for his peace of mind last time- and Takao informs him that even though this pair isn't as wildly extravagant as the other one, they're pretty up there; Takao has had his eye on a similar pair- a more updated version, obviously, though not the first pair Kagami lent him since they can't all have fabulously wealthy sugar-

Midorima stops listening right then by clamping the headphones over his ears. Bliss. Takao pouts at him, but silently.

That settles it. The convenience of total silence is going to be worth bringing them along until Midorima has the opportunity to pass them back to Kagami- perhaps at some unavoidable moment, like the Winter Cup qualifiers, when Midorima can shoot it into his stupid face from a distance. It's not as though Kagami is going to find out he's still using them. (Kagami doesn't reply.)

He prepares himself to go to camp with an unshakable mindset. He doesn't have the time to be concentrating on anyone else. He definitely won't even bother about the Interhigh (although Akashi is sweeping to victory, although Murasakibara is probably bored out of his mind with it already, although Kise keeps sending him mails that could not get more annoying if he tried). He has to look ahead now.

(Kagami doesn't reply.)

.0.

Oha Asa promised him a new beginning (but she does, every month or so, a month of new beginnings) on the day when they arrive at the inn and complaining, loudly, unpack and set up. They weren't the only two freshmen there, but this was very little consolation when Nakatani-kantoku folded his arms and stared at them and the seniors bellowing orders were just as harrassed and grey-faced with exhaustion as the rest of them. They woke the next morning ready to do it all over again. Midorima began to reconsider the merits of Tradition, and to think that Oha Asa had surely-

Kagami and Kuroko stared at them in the mirror, mouths full of toothpaste foam, eyes shocked- or at least as shocked as Kuroko ever looked. Kagami was even beginning to flush, although that just have been the sunburn. Midorima's sense of outrage reasserted itself in slow stages, obviously Kagami hadn't mysteriously died, obviously he wasn't even reflecting on his loss at all, was in fact enjoying his summer vacation very much, with _Kuroko_-

Seirin's coach appeared at this moment, which thankfully saved Midorima from having to even mentally apologise to Kagami for misinterpreting the situation. Kagami looked back at Midorima over his shoulder and tried to lift his hand in a sad little wave. Midorima's glare froze it outright and Kagami slipped through the door after Aida Riko as quickly as he could. Kuroko nodded to them, and followed.

"That wasn't awkward _at all_," said Takao. "So, Shin-chan?"

"So what?" said Midorima. The red had crawled over Kagami's skin bright and angry. Hadn't he ever heard of sunblock? Why is Seirin here? It's almost enough to believe there's some kind of- kind of-

His fingers start to itch in their bindings.

Takao looked at him, sly and joyful and sparkling. "Seirin's here."

Midorima transferred the concentrated reptilian disdain onto him. "I'm perfectly capable of seeing that," he said.

"Really makes you believe in fate," said Takao, and then made a break for it before Midorima could catch him to make him pay for that comment. He whooped as he ran past the sempai setting up diligently, complaining that it was too hot for such nonsense as Takao ducked and dodged around them. Midorima only chased him for a little while until he too had to give up, the air sticky in his lungs and his heart pounding in ears- from the sudden activity, obviously.

Seirin's here.

.0.

Kagami did not participate in their practice games. Seirin's coach had him running up and down the beach all day, which was good, because it kept him out of Midorima's sight, him and his irritating hangdog look, the bob of his reddish head as he disappeared once again down the shore towards the combini down the road. Shuutoku only had practice with Seirin in the morning, which was good, but Kagami was kept out there all day where anyone else also practicing near the inn could see him. They managed to keep out of each other's way, though, and Midorima solaced himself instead with concentrating on Kuroko's basketball, the new thing Kuroko seemed to be trying to do. And crushing it. Midorima did not even get put into the last few practice matches, but he could see every member of Seirin steeling themselves nonetheless, and Kagami still outside, still working on something their coach doesn't want Shuutoku to see.

"Kuroko won't know what works unless he knows what doesn't," said Midorima to Takao after practice. Takao at least was taking fairly well to the training camp; he had only thrown up twice today, and both times _before_ food. This was preferable to Kuroko's habit of passing out cold in the middle of combined training, an occurrence so commonplace Midorima had just dragged Kuroko to the side of the gym so no one would step on him and then gone back to his own drills without missing a step.

"Some of us non-Teikou people also speak basketball, thank you very much," said Takao. "You talked to him yet?"

"Who?" said Midorima.

"Kagami," said Takao, and before Midorima could vociferously deny any need for this, continued, "You've still got his headphones, right?"

Right. Right. Midorima did.

(There's no way he can, there's no appropriate time or place or- he'd have to call Kagami out, to hand it to him, to- a time and place will present itself. Surely. Of course.)

.0.

Kagami doesn't understand _anything_. He can _say_, _next time_, but what does that mean? He can't even look Midorima in the eye lying on his back half in and half out of the hedge like a crazy person, lifting the hoop back up while Midorima stared at him and tried to ignore Takao and Kuroko hiding badly in the bushes. Does he really think that this level of improvement is going to be enough? Can he really be underestimating the Generation of Miracles this badly? He's not going to get anywhere the way he is now.

Midorima is going to have to be the one who makes him understand.

The bandages slip free from his fingers, and Midorima throws the basketball to Kagami so it nearly hits him in the face, except that Kagami blocks, as Midorima had known he would. He's ready. His fortune is better than Kagami's today. (He checked Kagami's fortune today.)

_Try harder_, Midorima snarls at him, in every expression, every time he smacks the ball out of Kagami's hands, each block and every mark they chalk into the parking lot. _Be better. Win harder. Lose interestingly. Don't lose to me._

Kagami grits his teeth and tries it again, tries the same thing over again, and it won't work, it'll never work. Why is he so stupid?

_Don't lose to anyone._

Midorima has not yet shown half of who he is to Kagami, to- Shuutoku. It's not even about holding back. It's about how you play your basketball. What it takes to win. It's not enough to tell Kagami anything. You have to beat the knowledge into his tiny, tiny brain.

_Don't lose to anyone ever again._

Kagami stops when Midorima calls a halt, and stares up at the hoop, the barest seeds of enlightenment sprouting in his face.

Midorima is looking at Kuroko when he says it, but he's sure Kagami hears him anyway. "Don't disappoint me at the Winter Cup preliminaries." (It's just what he's been wishing for.)

.0.

Kagami was the one who called him out instead. They kept mixing to a minimum, focusing on training, but the two school couldn't help overrunning each other at night. The inn was only so big, after all. Just before lights-out, the kitchen was dark and empty as the teams settled into their respective rooms aching with pain and exhausted with effort. Kagami led him into it and opened the fridge, hunting for something.

"Are you _still hungry_?" said MIdorima, appalled. It wasn't as strange to speak to Kagami as it had been before the one-on-one, but they were nowhere near the ease of the tutoring session, of sitting on a public bench in the growing dark sharing sound close enough to touch skin to skin. But Kagami had called him out. "Don't eat before you sleep!"

"It's not that," said Kagami, pulling out a bag of cans. He put it on one of the tables, and sunk down into the chair, which creaked under his weight. He fingered a can. "I- I got a Shiruko for you. From the store. No one else was going to drink that kind of thing anyway, so I got- I mean, it's for you."

"Isn't that for your own team?" said Midorima frostily.

"Nah, open bag," said Kagami. "Your teammates have been helping themselves. Takao, too."

Midorima knew. Takao had been saying so, that Kagami kept count of laps with drink cans left in the inn's fridge and raided during free time. Kagami had never bought shiruko before. If he had, maybe Midorima would have considered it worth his time to take one. "That doesn't mean I want to," he said.

"It's for- look, I wanna say thanks," said Kagami, rubbing a hand over his face. "I- I keep owing you things."

Midorima's spine stiffened. He said, "If this referring to your property, I-"

"You're not graceful at all," said Kagami. "Shut up and let me finish. Your pencil. You tutored me, even though I only said that to shut you up. I was feeling low after that first time playing with Aomine, and not being able to practice all the way because I was healing, you didn't need to keep me company half the night. And now this. You showed me what I was missing."

Midorima's skin heated. "It's not like I did it for you," he said, looking down at Kagami in the half-dark. "I didn't even know Kuroko had lent you that pencil. You're so stupid I'm sure no tutoring could ever make a dent. I had to return your headphones. And- and you're so stupid there was obviously no way you were going to get it on your own."

"I'm pretty stupid," said Kagami, and put his head into his hand. "And I'm- I'm sorry I didn't reply you. After the Touou match. I was pretty- well I had to sit out all the other matches, and then after I went straight home from school and sat around in the dark thinking about shit I couldn't change. I didn't know what to say to you. But that's not- I wanted to. But I let it go, and- I'm sorry."

"...You didn't wish me good night," said Midorima, looking out the window now, where there was the parking lot, and beyond that, the sea. "I couldn't sleep, and you didn't- you left your headphones with me. It was too expensive, that first pair. You shouldn't have lent it to me. It was too much. You made me take home another pair of yours, even though I didn't want to. Takao keeps talking nonsense about sugar daddies."

Kagami winced. "Yeah," he said, and looked up at Midorima, dark eyes and faint smile, as though he knew something Midorima didn't, peaceful and ready, now that he'd said what he wanted to say. He'd been het up the other day, boiling with it, burning. The ocean breeze swirled through the windows and tugged at his hair. Had he just bathed? Kagami practiced later than even the rest of his team.

Midorima breathed. "And you lost," he said, but without the snarling urgency, the dark and draining feel in the pit of his stomach. "You lost before I could beat you."

"It's not going to happen again," said Kagami, and Midorima believed him. "I'm not going to lose again."

"Neither are we," said Midorima, and he believed this too. Then he picked the shiruko can out of the plastic bag and cracked it, because it was better than looking at Kagami's face. It was nice and cold, but Midorima was going to have to brush his teeth again after this. He sat down.

"Why do you like that?" said Kagami, after a while. He picked his own drink- juice, of some kind- and drank it. He lounged on the chair tipping it back in a decidedly unsafe manner, and looked across at Midorima. They're going to be in trouble if anyone finds them out like this, by now. They're all supposed to be asleep.

"Because it's delicious, you simple-minded cretin," said Midorima. "You don't know anything about taste. You don't know anything about appreciating food that is not garbage, and that is why you cannot be expected to appreciate a drink like this."

He expected another retort from Kagami on why cheeseburgers were delicious or something equally inane and indefensible. Instead Kagami said, laughing at Midorima in the stripes of lamp and moonlight which came in the windows, "I know why I like you."


End file.
